Jessica Titone's Blog - Posts Tagged "second-edition"
Dead Darlings
Watermarked was officially published in June of 2016. By the time I pressed the button to make things real, I was entirely sick of it. I had read, re-read, rewritten, edited, thought about, and spell-checked it to death. I would have probably set it on fire were it paper and not a digital file.
The Kindle book was over 700 pages. "Okay," I thought. "No big deal. I like to read long books. Diana Gabaldon writes 1000 pages books and look how well she's doing."
Yeah.
I'm not Diana Gabaldon. And people aren't generally fond of 700 page books that carry on into infinity. Still the whole "sick of it" vibe surrounded the book, so I could not bring myself to touch it.
I'm now about nine months away from when I first hit publish. A certain thought won't leave me: 700 pages is a hell of a lot to expect a person to read. So I've picked it up again and am currently combing through it at a pace that would make a snail groan.
I'm the author, so please take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. Y'all, it sucks. It really sucks. Typos galore. Sentences that go on for far too long. Never ending chapters. Unsophisticated dialogue. Also, Ray acting very much like a child of ten. What is wrong with me that I thought that this version was ready to show the world?
So, I am revamping. Killing all of my darlings, tightening up the SPAG, and above all, shortening the darned thing. Stay tuned for second edition...premiering just as soon as I unglue my kids from my arms so that I can type.
Edited to add: The moment I notice all of the novel's glaring faults would be when its Kindle Unlimited page reads starts skyrocketing. I watch the charts each day and speak aloud to the little dots on it. No, no, stop buying the book. Stop reading. Just give me a week to fix everything!
Life continues to perplex me.
The Kindle book was over 700 pages. "Okay," I thought. "No big deal. I like to read long books. Diana Gabaldon writes 1000 pages books and look how well she's doing."
Yeah.
I'm not Diana Gabaldon. And people aren't generally fond of 700 page books that carry on into infinity. Still the whole "sick of it" vibe surrounded the book, so I could not bring myself to touch it.
I'm now about nine months away from when I first hit publish. A certain thought won't leave me: 700 pages is a hell of a lot to expect a person to read. So I've picked it up again and am currently combing through it at a pace that would make a snail groan.
I'm the author, so please take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. Y'all, it sucks. It really sucks. Typos galore. Sentences that go on for far too long. Never ending chapters. Unsophisticated dialogue. Also, Ray acting very much like a child of ten. What is wrong with me that I thought that this version was ready to show the world?
So, I am revamping. Killing all of my darlings, tightening up the SPAG, and above all, shortening the darned thing. Stay tuned for second edition...premiering just as soon as I unglue my kids from my arms so that I can type.
Edited to add: The moment I notice all of the novel's glaring faults would be when its Kindle Unlimited page reads starts skyrocketing. I watch the charts each day and speak aloud to the little dots on it. No, no, stop buying the book. Stop reading. Just give me a week to fix everything!
Life continues to perplex me.
